Great title, right? On a late-night Beatport binge I encountered two tracks that immediately struck my fancy. Consequently, they both deal with planes. Holy. Freaking. Moly.
The first comes from Andy Chatterley, who in the past has worked with, of all people, Kanye West! Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, the man can churn out warm, dark-side-of-the-moon techno bombs like nobody's business. "Jets" was released to little fanfare back in January on Saved Records, but it's become one of my favorite tracks of the year, easily, with only a few listens.
"Jets" happens to be very aptly titled. A lush, planetary/spacey rippler of a techno track, this near-eight minute rhythmic space odyssey pulses and gyrates through razor-thin, wiry-sharp drums and hisses before a lunar bounce of a tom turns the gravity on the entire track down to zero. Planes take off and land haphazardly throughout the track, all while things seem to remain grounded, even if every sound bounces off the beautifully, empty-sounding synth riff that eerily permeates the track every four bars or so. Blaring, scooping sirens turn things up a notch and set the threat level alert here on red: something's about to crash and burn. The drums pull out for a minute or so as the main synth line hovers and chimes in thin air, as if bouncing around on a sonic moon bounce. The sirens come in as one final jet lands. Apparently, everything's closing...all the planes are landing, everything quiets, then...BOOM. The sirens rise in full swing, a flock of jets land and take off in a cacophony of jarring, pulsating, absolutely incessant techno rhythms. A beauty of a track that builds slowly and palpably before a militant, commanding climax that satisfies everything the body wants it to. This one's for the body as much as it is the mind. We are clear for takeoff.
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This next one comes from German minimal/techno DJ/producer/mastermind Martin Buttrich, known in the past for "Full Clip", a thoughtful, minimalistic composition released on Carl Craig's iconic Planet E Communications. At nearly eleven minutes, this will be a journey and a trek for those unfamiliar with atmospheric, attention-to-detail minimal techno.
"Stoned Autopilot" kicks off with light drums, before a fuzzy, one-note bassline rolls in under a bed of hi-hat sheen that lets some much-needed light in. The futuristic, trancey synth line rises from the depths, creating a somber, bleak atmosphere of a track that somewhat reminds one of the feeling you get when you look to the horizon on a freezing winter morning: desolate, yet familiar, with a hint of warmth and depth that isn't always noticeable or comforting. Luckily, around 3:40, a menacing, subby bassline adds not only harmony to the barebones melody, but the track begins to take on a fuller structure, with an additional crying, twisting synth line to add to the already cold, blank face of this cut. A little past the halfway mark, everything again comes into focus, and a buzzing, 16-bit ring sounds like the receiver in the cockpit of a plane, only no one's around to pick it up. Consequently, the plane goes into freefall. The low-end heavy, killer bassline takes front stage to ominous effect. The track gathers structure completely, but the vehicle remains helpless. Not until the end does it regain that same spacey, bleak sound it had in the beginning. This plane is headed for the ground, but it goes out with a bang, not a whimper. A track that tells a story like this does not come by very often. EVery sound plays a role, and it works both the mind and the body unlike anything I've ever experienced or heard before. Hats off to Buttrich, who is quickly becoming one of favorite producers.
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Like I said, planes. So cool. Two amazing tracks that I'll continue to enjoy for a long, long time.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then music is worth at least twice that much.
-NL
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